Ramen from Japan, China, and the rest of Asia. A guide to all different varieties of authentic ramen and it's history. No instant ramen here.

Tuesday, January 16, 2007

★★★ 俺の空 (Ore no Sora) - Tokyo

Ore no Sora ("My Sky" in Japanese) is a ramen shop near Takadanobaba station that used to be the darling of the Tokyo ramen scene. A few years back you needed to wait 40 minutes plus just to get inside, today it seems the fad has died down quite a bit. I was able to get a seat around 6pm my last trip there and I tried their 豚玉そば (Buta tama soba) pork and egg noodles.

The Soup - is a rich, thick tonkotsu soup blended with a Japanese seafood soup. The strong flavored pork bone soup is well balanced with the strong aroma of the seafood, but it maybe a bit too heavy to eat as a soup for some people.

The Noodles - are thin straight noodles cooked very firm. These dense noodles are chewy and a great match with the flavorful soup.

The Toppings - the kakuni slow simmered pork is very tender it practically melts in your mouth. The flavored boiled egg is cooked just right with the yolk slightly runny.

Overall - a very delicious tonkotsu/seafood blend soup ramen. While well reviewed and popular ramen place for many people the soup is still a little to heavy for my preference. For ramen in the same category I recommend Miharu in Ebisu/Ikebukuro and Hayashi in Shibuya.

Ore no Sora is very easy to get access. Take the JR Yamanote line and get off at Takadanobaba. Take the south exit (called the 戸山口 Toyamaguchi exit). From the station walk 1 minute south and it will be on your right hand side.